a cool site that facilitates your connectedness to others. if you have read malcolm gladwell’s “tipping point” you will like this service. for those of you interested in getting an invitation from me, just send me a PM

LinkedIn (beta)
REVIEW DATE:  01.20.04


Product: LinkedIn (beta)
Price: Free
Company Info: LinkedIn Ltd., http://www.linkedin.com

 
  Total posts: 1

 

By Richard V. Dragan
More of a well-heeled social club than a friendly free-for-all, LinkedIn is the most exclusive site we reviewed. This professional-oriented site is also the least likely to bother members with trivia. Like Ryze, LinkedIn targets business users, but at a higher level—meaning upper-echelon managers and executives.

A quick search of LinkedIn’s 40,000 members revealed over 700 VPs, over 140 CTOs, and over 500 CEOs; such stats might cause executive recruiters—or job seekers—to prick up their ears. If LinkedIn can maintain its cachet of exclusivity, it’ll be an impressive way to make important contacts for those in senior positions.

Mere mortals, however, aren’t likely to see this high-level A-list—at least not without a custom invitation from on high. LinkedIn’s stringent privacy policy is appropriate to its professional bent. The site does a good job of protecting its clients from public view, though you can opt to allow other users to contact you directly.

A more common option for beginners is to search for current and former colleagues and contacts already linked up to LinkedIn. A handy feature lets you compare your Outlook address book against a list of current members, expediting the process of inviting people from the outside and building your business network from the ground up.

LinkedIn has a no-nonsense, all-business user interface. There are no forums, specific listings for job opportunities, or extra content here (as with Ryze and Tribe.net) beyond statistics about your network, including percentages of users who fall into categories (like job seekers and hiring managers) and distribution by industry and geography.

LinkedIn gives you excellent control of searches by name, title, geography, and industry type. You’ll see only people in your network (those you’re linked to by a chain of friends), however, so it’s important that you cultivate connections. Once you locate a source, you can approach contacts about a job or other opportunity via a request page. In this beta version, users can have three outstanding requests at a time.

The governing principle is that persons of influence will be selective about passing along references, which are handed off to other contacts for approval. For three degrees of separation, you need two people to approve your request to approach a potential employer with a rèsumè, for example. When you sign in to your account, you’re informed of outstanding reference requests, which you can accept or reject. Should a request be rejected, the person who asked for it is never informed who rejected it. This decreases the chances that inappropriate requests will be simply rubber-stamped.

While there are no profile photos for LinkedIn members, testimonials in the form of endorsements from other members can add weight to user profiles. According to LinkedIn, such endorsements significantly increase the odds of making successful contacts. Favorite contacts can be stored in an address book, though unlike the other services, LinkedIn doesn’t have an extensive messaging system.

LinkedIn could change the way executive recruiting is conducted. As a general-purpose job site, it can undoubtedly work. And if you’re fortunate enough to gain entrèe to its elite client list, it’s a great resource for tapping venture capital, senior management, and technical expertise.